Mainstream HTPCs/SFF Gaming PCs v3.0

HTPC: Home-Theater Personal Computer | SFF Gaming PC: Small Form Factor Gaming Personal ComputerThis article is the result of a collaboration between Brian, our contributor for The Best CPU Coolers For Your Money and Mathieu, the founder/editor of Hardware Revolution. We hope that you enjoy the results!

Is this the right type of PC for me?

If you’re looking for a small-factor PC, to watch TV or DVD/Blu-Ray disks, play video games, listen to music, etc., you’re at the right place. If this is not what you’re looking for, check out our other Computer Systems instead.

The main case recommendation for Tier 3, 4 and 5: The LIAN LI PC-Q08 Mini-ITX cases line-up, available in Black (PC-Q08B), Red (PC-Q08R) and Silver (PC-Q08A). Rest assured, if you don't like these cases, there are also eight other alternatives, for a total of eleven (11) cases to pick from.

Imagine a relatively silent, reliable and powerful HTPC/Gaming PC in a compact and attractive case. This is what you’re getting here.

These builds are designed to playback or convert audio/video content, as well as play video games when it comes to Tier 4 and 5.

Choose from Three Tiers:
Tier 3 is stricly a HTPC. It’s a low cost option that’s perfect if what you want is a fairly powerful HTPC that boots fast, that can decode or encode the common content and browse the web while not consuming much power and being pretty quiet.

Tier 4 is designed as an HTPC first, being capable of decoding/handling pretty much any video/audio content (more than Tier 3, more about this in Video Playback section located at the end of the video section) and it is also a very capable SFF Gaming PC, that can handle 1080p Gaming without any problem.

Tier 5 is designed to be as powerful as a Mini-ITX HTPC/SFF Gaming PC gets, with a 65W TDP Quad-Core CPU and a Geforce GTX 560 Ti.

Upgrades and Alternatives
All three Tiers can be upgraded in order to be more powerful, to offer more storage capacity, to be less noisy and more.

Hardware Parts Recommendations

Recommended Components are in Bold, with a or several symbols for the Tier(s).

Suggested Alternatives and Upgrades are in Italic.

All Parts are interchangeable/compatible with each other, except for the Micro-ATX motherboard, which will only fit in a Micro-ATX or larger case and not in the Mini-ITX cases. Also, some cases require a slim optical drive, so be sure to double-check that, as well as the required SATA cable.

Hardware Parts Recommendations, Detailed Version

Motherboard:

Tier 3 and 4:

This motherboard offers LGA1155 compatibility, in the small Mini-ITX form-factor, at a great price ($80), with video outputs via HDMI, DVI and/or VGA making it an excellent choice for the Mainstream HTPCs.

Ports, expansion slots, features, what’s included in the box, etc.

Expansion slots: On the board itself, you have one PCI-Express 2.0 16X slot, for a dedicated video card or dedicated sound card.

Other connectors/features on the motherboard: Two fan connectors (One for the CPU Cooler, one for a case fan), four SATA 3.0Gb/s, one USB 3.0 header and one USB 2.0 header.Included in the box: Motherboard, two SATA cables, manual, CD with drivers/utilities and I/O backplate.

$110 – ASRock Z68 PRO3-M E-SATA SATA6Gb/s USB3.0 Micro ATX – This larger Micro-ATX motherboard is only compatible with larger Micro-ATX cases. Recommended if you want a dedicated video card AND a dedicated sound card, which is impossible on smaller Mini-ITX motherboards, which are equipped with only one PCI-Express 16x slot. This motherboard is equipped with a PCI-Express 16x slot (for the video card), one PCI slot and two PCI Express 1x slots. It also comes with video outputs, allowing you to use it as an alternative for Tier 3 with the integrated Intel HD video card. Of course, you can also use it with a dedicated video card or sound card if you wish to.

Ports, expansion slots, features, what’s included in the box, etc.

Expansion slots: On the board itself, you have one PCI-Express 2.0 16X slot, for a dedicated video card or dedicated sound card.

Other connectors/features on the motherboard: Two fan connectors (One for the CPU Cooler, one for a case fan), four SATA 3.0Gb/s, one USB 3.0 header and one USB 2.0 header.
Included in the box: Motherboard, two SATA cables, Remote Controller, Remote receiver, 3.5mm, audio cable, manual, CD with drivers/utilities and I/O backplate.Click here to go back up to the chart

Anandtech’s Bench tool offers a comparaison between the AMD E-350 vs the Intel G840 and as you can see, it clearly outperforms the AMD E-350.

Why not go with an Intel Pentium G620T 35W CPU?
While from a TDP perspective point of view, you’d think that the Pentium G620T, with its 35W TDP, compared to its 65W TDP brothers would consume a lot less power, this is not the case. Despite running at lower frequencies than its 65W TSP counter-parts, it only consumes 4 to 6W less than the G620/840/850, which is negligible, so you’re better off with a 65W TDP CPUs running at full throttle.

Tier 5:

For Tier 5, where you get the most powerful components that can function in a Mini-ITX case, I recommend this 65W TDP quad-core CPU.

While its base frequency of 2.5Ghz may seem low to you, rest assured that it can speed up quite a bit with Turbo.

Turbo frequencies:

1 active core: 3.3GHz

2 active cores: 3.2GHz

3 active cores: 2.8GHz

4 active cores: 2.6GHz

Upgrade to consider for Tier 3 or 4:
If you intend to convert a lot of videos and/or do other CPU-intensive tasks, upgrading to this low-power quad-core CPU would be a wise choice.

While its base frequency of 2.5GHz is nothing to call home about, it will turbo up to 3.2Ghz on two cores or 3.3Ghz on a single core, meaning that it will have no problem keeping up or most likely outperfoming the Core i3-2100 in applications that aren’t very well threaded, such as games.

Video Card:

Tier 3:

Free: Integrated Intel HD (integrated into the CPU)

The Intel HD integrated video is capable of handling most type of content playback (see the video playback below for details) and consumes very little power, making it a great choice for a basic HTPC.

The video card is integrated into the CPU, so you don’t need to buy it separately.

Alternative

$70 – For video decoding/light gaming: Sapphire Radeon HD 6570 1GB – While the Intel HD can handle most types of content, there are some that it can’t handle, such as proper 23.976Hz playback. For that reason, I alternatively recommend the Radeon HD 6570, which will handle pretty much any type of content, as well as some light gaming (older games or newer games at a lower resolution/lower details). Note that the Radeon HD 6570 doesn’t consume much power, so you won’t need to upgrade the PSU if you get it.

Video Playback/Decoding:

Glossary:

2D to 3D (CPU): Converting 2D SD isn’t very demanding, but converting 2D HD content is much more demanding on the CPU.

Frame Packing: One of the main 3D video format by HDMI 1.4a, for full-quality 3D movie playback.

SBS(H)/TAB/CB: Side-by-Side (Half), Top-and-Bottom and Checkerboard 3D formats, in order. The two first are main 3D video formats by HDMI 1.4a, used for broadcast contents. SBS(H) is also used by some Blu-ray 3D. CB is used by DLP 3D HDTVs from Mitsubishi and Samsung.

Feature comparison:

√ means that this feature is supported and/or that playback will be smooth.
√ High CPU % means that playback is relatively smooth, but that it may skip a bit due to high CPU usage %.
X means that this feature is not supported and/or that playback won’t be smooth.

As you can see above, Tier 4 and 5 support every feature and will smoothly playback pretty much any content.

Tier 3 is slightly more limited due to its slower CPU and lack of dedicated video card. For MVC (CPU) and 2D to 3D (CPU), you can fix this by upgrading the CPU to the Core i3-2120 or Core i5-2400S.

For 23.976Hz and 2D Video madVR, you can gain support by getting a dedicated video card, such as the recommended alternative Radeon 6570. Thanks to its low power consumption, upgrading to this video card does not require upgrading the power supply. This video card will also let you play older/less demanding video games or more recent video games at lower settings/resolution.

You could also upgrade the video card to the recommended Radeon HD 6870 (Tier 4) or the recommended Geforce GTX 560 Ti (Tier 5) to gain video decoding and higher resolution/details gaming, however the Tier 3 CPU will prove to be a bit of a bottleneck in some games. Do note that upgrading to the Radeon HD 6870 or Geforce GTX 560 Ti will require you to upgrade the PSU to the recommended 450W PSU.

Tier 5:

Note for Tier 3 and 4: If you want to to upgrade your SSD to this model, I highly recommend upgrading your motherboard to either the ASRock Z68 PRO3-M Micro-ATX or the ASRock Z68M-ITX/HT Mini-ITX, in order to gain SATA 6.0Gbps support, otherwise you’ll be bottlenecking this SSD.

Once again, with Tier 5, we’re cramming as much performance as we can into a Mini-ITX and we’re going with one of the, if not THE fastest SSD for booting times and for gaming.

It’s also highly reliable, as opposed to certain OCZ SSDs.

Alternatives:

$240 – Intel X25-M 2.5″ 120GB SSD – However, if you want the best of the best when it comes to reliability, this is the SSD to get. This SSD has a solid track record, excellent customer reviews and I can vouch for it: I’ve been using one for the last six months or so in my personnal laptop and more recently, in my workstation and I’ve yet to have any problem with it.

Case alternatives:

Like the LIAN-LI PC-Q08 but not the LED fans?

The Silverstone Sugo Mini-ITX cases line-up:

Important notes regarding compatibility:
1- The Silverstone Sugo series are not compatible with standard height optical drive, they require a slim optical drive, along with a slim SATA power/data cable. See the Optical Drive section for my recommendations.
2- The Silverstone Sugo series include quality reliable power supplies, so you won’t need to buy a separate power supply. Pick the 300W model for Tier 3 or the 450W for Tier 4 and 5.

SILVERSTONE Sugo SG05

SILVERSTONE Sugo SG06

Even smaller than the LIAN-LI PC-Q08!
One of the, if not THE smallest Mini-ITX case that supports dual slot video cards, you have two (technically four) options here:

Larger Micro-ATX cases

If you want both a dedicated video card and sound card, here are four Micro-ATX cases that support Micro-ATX motherboards, which are equipped with four expansion slots. You can simply click on the image to go to NewEgg or Amazon (whichever had the lowest price) for more details. As always, you can pick any case, knowing that it will be compatible with the rest of my recommendations and other alternatives.

Power Supply:

Tier 3:

Tier 3 features a 65W TDP CPU and onboard graphics, so needless to say, it draws very little power and you don’t need a large power supply. Note that you can still use this PSU with Tier 3 with the Radeon HD 6570 too.

Here, I focused on giving you a high-quality, reliable, affordable and efficient (80 PLUS Certified) power supply from SeaSonic.

One great thing about it is that it’s based on the SFX standard, meaning that it’s physically smaller than ATX power supplies, improving airflow in the case and making your life easier when it comes down to assembling your HTPC.

Tier 4 and 5:

Tier 4 features a 65W CPU and a Radeon HD 6870, which together should consume about 250W at load.
Tier 5 features a 65W CPU and a Geforce GTX 560 Ti, which together should consume about 290W at load.

Hence why a 450W PSU is perfectly fine when you consider overhead.

This is a 80 PLUS Bronze power supply, which is even more efficient than the 80 PLUS power supply recommended above for Tier 3.

One great thing about it is that it’s based on the SFX standard, meaning that it’s physically smaller than ATX power supplies, improving airflow in the case and making your life easier when it comes down to assembling your HTPC.

Cooling:

Tier 3, 4 and 5:

While you could use this included stock cooler that comes with your CPU, I don’t recommend doing that for a HTPC, considering that the stock cooler can get quite noisy under load. Hence why I recommend an after-market CPU Cooler for all Tiers.

Boy did I have fun finding an after-market that can fit in all these small cases and that wouldn’t interfere with a dedicated video card on a Mini-ITX motherboard.

The Cooler Master Vortex Plus is my recommendation and based on my research, should fit with any of my recommendations/alternatives as well.

TV Tuner:

The motherboard has a single PCI-Express 16x slot, which I left open if you choose to add a dedicated PCI-Express video or sound card.

However, nothing stops you from using this USB TV Tuner if you wish to watch or record TV. Note that it is optional and that its price is not included in the build because not everyone wants or needs a TV Tuner.

Sound Card:

This motherboard does include integrated onboard sound, which is good enough for most people.

If you’re an audiophile or just enjoy high quality sound, then onboard sound, no matter how good it is, won’t cut it for you, here are three excellent PCI-Express 1x sound card that I recommend to you.

If you go with Tier 3 and aren’t getting a dedicated video card, you can simply put the sound card in the PCI-Express 16x slot. Yes, a PCI-Express 1x card will fit and function in a 16x slot.

If on the flip side, you’re getting a dedicated video card with any Tier and also want a dedicated sound, you’ll need to upgrade to a Micro-ATX motherboard and case, which feature enough expansion slots to support both a dedicated video card and a dedicated sound card.

Accessories:

This is the least expensive input option at $51. For that price, you get a keyboard that features a numpad, an optical trackball, a scroll-wheel, two buttons for left and right mouse buttons “clicks” as well as many multimedia buttons.

With a good ThinkPad like key feel, and potentially infinite battery life, this is a good input device if you want a basic keyboard without worrying at all about battery life. Works great with the Marathon Mouse.

Recommended operating systems:

The operating system cost, if there’s one, is not included in the total cost. The two reason for this are:

The budget only considers hardware.

You may be able re-use a previous license, go with an open-source OS such as Linux or , if you’re so inclined and are aware of what you’re doing, use torrents.

If you decide that you need a need OS, here are some recommendations:

Windows 7

Despite Linux gaining more and more support, Windows still is the platform of choice for compatibility at the moment. Considering that you’ll have 4GB of RAM or more, along with a dedicated video that also has memory (512MB or 1GB), you’ll need a 64-bit version, as 32-bit is limited to 4GB of memory for the entire system, which is not enough now, nor in the future if you decide to upgrade.

Windows 7 is by far better than Windows Vista, looks better, more functional, less annoying, consumes less resources and brings DirectX 11 to the table.

Three Available Versions:

Windows 7 Home Premium: The basic edition, with all the looks, most of the functionality and DirectX 11.

Windows 7 Professional: If you want the virtual XP mode, you’ll need at least the Professional edition. Also required if you want to backup to a network, using the built-in backup mode in Windows.

Windows 7 Ultimate: To help protect data on your PC and portable storage devices against loss or theft with BitLocker and to work and switch between 35 languages.

OEM vs Retail:

The OEM version allows you to only install it once on a computer. You cannot transfer the license to another computer in the future and you do not receive support from Microsoft. It’s the same type of license you get when you get Windows on a desktop or laptop that you buy from Dell, HP and such. It’s less expensive, but gives less flexibility. Ideal if you intend on keeping your computer for many years.

The Retail version is the full version, which allows you to transfer the license to another computer in the future and you can call Microsoft if you need any form of support. Ideal if you intend on upgrading/changing your computer down the road.

Other than that, you get the same features on both, only the license differs. The price between the two differs obviously.

Linux

A lot of people these days boots more than one OS. Linux is a wonderful choice: powerful, cool, and cheap. Take your pick of distributions and have fun! For Fedora, Ubuntu, Debian, Slackware, and Mandrake, try Distrowatch.com, Cheapbytes.com, LinuxQuestions.org or one of the many others.

While Linux does not offer the wide compatibility of Windows with video games, gaming on Linux is still possible, through projects such as Wine, Cedega and Crossover. For more on the topic of Linux Gaming, I invite you to read this excellent article from AnandTech: Linux Gaming: Are we there yet?

Conclusion

Your feedback matters!

Remember, we design these builds to be helpful to you! The best way for us to be helpful to you is for you to let us know how to improve these articles, by offering your feedback (Comments, suggestions, reactions, opinions, etc.) below in the comment section.

What do you think of the Mainstream HTPCs v3.0? I think that they strike a nice balance between performance, looks, noise, power consumption, size and value. What’s your opinion? Would you recommend or would you want to try a different part? Let me know by leaving a comment below.

What about the new Tier System? I’ve heard some good and some bad feedbacks about it. Rather than just saying whether you like it or not, I invite you to tell me in the comments section what you’d do to improve the Tier system.

Next update to the Mainstream HTPCs:
I will not be updating the Mainstream HTPCs for a while, as I have several articles (laptops, tablets, Gaming PCs, Workstations, etc.) in the pipelines that I want to invest my time on.

Mind you, if there some major product launch (e.g. new video cards line-up, new CPU line-up), I’ll update this post if necessary.

If you have any questions/suggestions/ideas regarding what should be updated, make a thread over at our forums here.

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About The Author

HR Founder - Computer expert with over 16 years of experience in building, fixing and modifying PCs.
Over the years, I’ve developed a passion for PC hardware and now I enjoy helping others build their own PCs!
In April 2008, I launched Hardware Revolution and ... Read more at my about page

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